Autonomous vehicles have the ability to drive without the intervention of a human driver, that is, a vehicle computer makes decisions about accelerating, braking, and steering the vehicle. A vehicle may be fully autonomous or semi-autonomous. A semi-autonomous vehicle may be autonomous only in particular situations, for example, highway driving or parallel parking, or with respect to certain vehicle subsystems, for example, braking but not acceleration or steering.
When a vehicle is driving autonomously, a vehicle computer, sometimes referred to as a “virtual driver,” may send signals directly to the engine, brakes, and steering; the signals need not pass through the controls accessible to the human driver, the pedals and steering wheel. A steering wheel that does not move while the vehicle moves, however, may disorient the human driver.
Both fully and semi-autonomous vehicles may need the ability to hand over control of the vehicle from a virtual driver to the human driver. A handover may become more difficult if a steering wheel is not moved during autonomous operation of steering, and if the human driver does not know the orientation of the front wheels of the vehicle.